Completed! #30 Make and send 5 scrapbooked cards

Another goal completed! I have actually made 15 cards at this point, but I only just recently mailed the last few that allowed me to count this goal as finished. More pictures of the cards will be up some point soon for those who care. I think I will actually end up sending more cards because I’m making them then I sent before when I just bought cards. Initially I only bought a small pack of six white cards and a box with small colored ones, but today at Michaels I bought a pack of 50 that were on sale. So this is one goal that will hopefully be continued long after the 101 project is over!

Digital Scrapbooking and Photoshop fun!

My whole weekend was spent discovering photoshop. It is definitely my new favorite thing. Finally, I can make my own headers, I can try digital scrapbooking, and I can make my own designs rather than searching the web for them.

In the beginning of the weekend I spent time learning about digital scrapbooking. The Shabby Princess site is all you really need to get started. She has a tutorial that not only tells you how to do your first layout in photoshop, but also has a video where she steps you through each part and you can see what she is doing on the screen. It was amazingly helpful for someone who is brand new to photoshop. On top of that, she has the best digital kits by far.

There were several other places that I found free downloadable digital scrapbooking kits. Many sites offer one or two things for free each week, so it was nice to find several in one spot.

Simply Clean Digi Scraps

Painted Pixels

Scrappy Pony

After the tutorials helped me to figure out the basics, I made some beginning layouts and some headers. I really got into the headers, so expect the header to be changing pretty often.

Another new love of mine is the brushes in photoshop. Nothing makes you feel artistic like essentially stamping someone else’s creation all over your layout. My absolute favorite brushes are the Seishido brushes. They are amazing. They remind me of many of the holiday stamps you would see for scrapbooking. Other places I found brushes that I liked are:

PS Brushes

Seishido’s Holiday Brushes

Here are the layouts I did this weekend. Love those polka-dots!

The obsession continues…

I’m very tempted to list this post under “completed,” however I am not TOTALLY complete so I’m going to save that for later. My #30 goal says to make 5 cards (done!) and send them (not done!). I’ll be complete once they actually make it in the mail.

I went to Wal-Mart and was tempted into a few more card making supplies. Today I made five cards for Valentines day, and one other for a special occasion. No pictures this time, as I haven’t sent them yet and don’t want to spoil the surprise.

Today Carrie and I went to our “clubhouse” (that exclusive club of literally all of our neighborhood) to weigh in for the neighborhood Biggest Loser contest. I’m hoping that being accountable to someone other than myself is an efficient way to use that Catholic guilt to further my weigh losing purposes.

#30–My first scrapbooked cards

Tonight I ignored all the grading I was supposed to do so that I could devote my time to cutting and pasting small patterned bits of paper. The result is simple, but I am still pretty happy with my first attempts. I made birthday cards for my mom and my grandpa.

This is the one I did for my mom:

(I’m still working on the best way to take a photo of it–but that’s a whole ‘nother goal)

This is the one I did for my grandpa:

They both have a little bit of cutesy-ness inside, but not enough to be worth an entire photo.

I wonder how many scrapbooking enthusiasts are also teachers and/or mothers. I think that there is something about being around small children that makes you want to be crafty. Or maybe crafty-ish people tend to flock to be around children…

#30 Creating Scrapbooked Cards

My first focus, since until the end of today I’m still on vacation, is to plan some scrapbooked cards. I went to Michaels yesterday and got some supplies. I have a notepad of coordinating papers, and I got a set with ink, stamps, and chalk. Now all I need is to find some ideas, so I’ve been looking around online for some layouts that seem simple but cute.

Here are some sites that I found helpful:
A Little Scrapbook Therapy
Making Memories Card Idea Gallery
Scrapbooking Layout Gallery

It’s hard to find decent sites that aren’t focused too much on selling stuff, or aren’t overrun with advertisements everywhere. I’m hoping that by looking through these ideas I’ll find some layouts that would be easy for me to start with. I’ll post a picture when I get them done.